


To Write It Away

by fifthnorthumberland



Category: The Get Down (TV)
Genre: F/M, Happy Ending, M/M, Polyamory Negotiations, more like relationship anarchy but you know, post part 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-12
Updated: 2017-05-12
Packaged: 2018-10-31 00:27:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10888089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fifthnorthumberland/pseuds/fifthnorthumberland
Summary: "Mylene wishes he told her about how he feels about everything that’s happened over the summer, everything he left behind, alongside the descriptions of his lectures and new roommate. Yale’s good to him and she’s glad he finally has something good just for himself, but she knows him and she wishes he’d write about his loneliness, too. About being separated from his brothers, away from the Bronx and his tía, away from her, and Shaolin."While Zeke is at school and she's in California filming her movie, Mylene reaches out to Zeke to try to make him see that things between them and Shao aren't done.





	To Write It Away

At first, he doesn’t write about any of it, only about the present, a little, and about the future. She knows him, though, and Zeke’s never been one to have his head in the clouds. Sure, he’s a believer and he’s willing to be swept off his feet in the fantasy of one version or another of a dream life, but he’s got both feet grounded, roots firmly planted where he stands.

Mylene wishes he told her about how he feels about everything that’s happened over the summer, everything he left behind, alongside the descriptions of his lectures and new roommate. Yale’s good to him and she’s glad he finally has something good just for himself, but she knows him and she wishes he’d write about his loneliness, too. About being separated from his brothers, away from the Bronx and his tía, away from her, and him. It’s been nothing but looking forward, except

_This ain’t home and I’ve got a lot of learning to do to catch up to everybody else. I ain’t special here cause everybody’s special here._

But the next line is asking about her, Yolanda and Regina and their movie, and she tells him all about it, but she doesn’t know how to ask _How did it feel when you read that letter and knew your whole life would change? Do you wish you still had music to write to? Do you miss him?_

 

Her words aren’t as elegant as his, she can't make one sentence after another somehow melt into each other to make meaning clearer, but she doesn’t care. It might seem like reading a diary full of bullet point ideas of what she wants to remember to tell him about, but she knows he’ll get her meaning though the jumble of

_We’ve been singing so good, Zeke. Yolanda’s been belting out these notes we haven’t ever heard from her before. I think being away from home is doing us all some good._

_I got a letter from tío. He’s proud of me. I don’t know what to think of him being in prison, but I’m excited to visit him when I go back home. When will you arrive for Christimas break?_

 

By November, she knows she won’t be home for Christmas. Her mama and sister are being flown out here and it’ll be their first Christmas out of the Bronx, their first holidays without papi.

_Maybe I shouldn’t miss him. Maybe I should still be angry at him for everything he did before...and for leaving us to deal with all of it. I miss him, though, Zeke._

_We have to stay here over the holidays because shooting isn’t over yet and Stiggy says we’re trying to get this done as soon as possible. I’ll miss you and Yolanda’ll miss her family, but we got each other and you know how much that means. I’ll come see you at your fancy school as soon as I can._

He understands, of course, he’s been so understanding of everything she has to sacrifice to make her dreams come true. She knows she hasn’t been as forgiving or flexible, now. Looking back, she realizes how tightly she was holding onto him while everything was slipping away. She thinks back to what Shawn told her in the back of that car, how those who love you got to let you go if they want you to be happy, to be yourself. Set you free.

_Zeke, you don’t write about him, but I know you’re thinking about him and it’s okay. I don’t get him, but I don’t know him like you do, I guess. I get how much he meant to you now. I’m sorry I was so mean to him. If you want to, you can go to him when you get back home. I don’t know if he’s still around, but I feel like you weren’t done when you left. You don’t have to leave everyone behind to be free._

 

They don’t talk over the phone often because it’s expensive, but he has her number and she knows the one at Wanda and Leon’s by heart. He calls her on New Year’s Eve around 10 pm. She tells him to hold on while she switches to a phone in a different room from where the party is happening.

“Happy New Year’s, my butterscotch queen.” He says over the line, and she can hear his goofy smile. It’s all it takes to stretch her lips into a smile of her own.

“Happy New Year’s, Zeke.”

They talk about the evening’s celebrations each of them are attending and how Christmas went. It’s a tough thing to talk about for both of them, family members missing and being far away from each other, so they make it quick.

“So you making any resolutions this year?” Zeke asks, playful. She knows he thinks it’s a bullshit tradition, but she believes in changing for the better, so she tells him;

“Yeah, I am. This year I wanna learn to trust myself a little more. Regina’s always telling me I know what I want, but I’m always asking other people and she’s right, Zeke.” He hums in agreement.

“How about you?”

He scoffs and she knows he means no harm, but she’s annoyed nonetheless.

“I don’t know, Mylene, I can’t think of anything on the spot.” Dismissive. She knows he’s tiptoeing around everything that’s standing between them. The miles of distance, the movie, school, the memory of Shaolin Fantastic.

“I went to see him when you got kicked out for that shit you pulled at the college thing with the dean.”

They hadn’t talked about that. Everything went by so quickly after that. Zeke leaving home, determined more than ever to live by his music, by his DJ. She was so deeply wrapped in her own shit, she barely remembers the anger that made her storm into Shao’s “temple” and yell at him about leaving Zeke alone. _Get your own man!_ she'd told Shao.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I was pissed. You know that. I just wanted him to leave you alone.” She feels foolish admitting it, now. “I wanted you to be safe, you know? I thought he ruined your chance to get away and I wanted you out of his shit.” She wasn’t sure of what she’ll say next, but she is now. “I didn’t realize you went to him cause you wanted to. And I couldn’t make you or him do anything you don’t want to.”

“Mylene-“

“Nah, Zeke, let me finish.” She steadies herself, breathes deep like before stepping on stage. “I know you got more love in your heart than anyone I know, Ezekiel. And you’re lying to yourself if you think you’re done with him. I’m okay with that. You’re mine, and I’m yours, but he was yours too.”

“I- It wasn’t like- I don’t get what you- What?”

“It’s okay, Zeke. I- I think he needs you. And you need him.”

There’s silence on the other side of the line for a few seconds. She can picture him, his face screwed up, trying to figure out in an instant how he can keep everything in his life together, thinking he's about to lose it all.

“I’m with you, Mylene, I’m not-. I _don’t_ need him. You know what he put me through, what he put us _all_ through. I can’t. I can’t forgive him that easy, Mylene.”

“I know. It ain’t about that. Zeke, you were his family, his brother.” She pauses, trying to find the words to say exactly what she means. “I didn’t want you to get caught up in his mess, and I didn’t see beyond that, but now I do. And I know- I know he loves you, Zeke. He got a piece of your heart and that’s okay. It ain’t gotta be one way or another. But it can’t be like it used to. It can’t be me or him. It’s me and you, and you and Shao.”

“How do- What do you mean, Mylene?”

“I still don’t want you messing up your future for him. Giving up everything for music, that…you don’t know how far it can take you. And the drugs. I can’t be involved with all of that.”

This is what she wants tell him, and everything else was challenging, but this is asking her to put her ego aside and her heart on the table, but she loves him. So.

“If he’s willing to get away from it, to leave it all behind and figure his shit out, then I’m willing to give him another chance if you want.”

Zeke takes a few seconds to think it over, she knows him. Cautious to be hopeful.

“Mylene, are you sure?”

Tears brimming, she laughs a little, relieved. “Yeah, Zeke. This is killing you. I know you and you aren’t just Yale, just like you aren’t just the Bronx. You gotta try, if you could have it all.”

“It’s not gonna be easy, getting him out of there. Shit, getting him to trust me, believe me. The shit I said to him when I left… I don’t know if he’ll forgive me.” She can hear him getting choked up.

“I know, Zeke. But we got time. And I know he’ll forgive you.”

“Mylene, I. I love you. Thank you.”

They hang up a few minutes later and she wipes her tears before heading back out to the party. Her mascara’s ruined, but she doesn’t care, really. It’s about to be 1979 in a few minutes and her heart feels lighter than it has in months. Her best friends in the world are on the other side of that door and her love has a chance to make things right again on the other side of the country, so here we go, she thinks. Into a brighter future Zeke can write and she can sing about.

**Author's Note:**

> I think some distance and time and her own dreams coming true would allow Mylene to understand that she doesn't have to (and shouldn't) make Zeke choose between her and Shaolin. 
> 
> I stole the title from Solange's Cranes In The Sky and a lot of the last paragraph from "The Other Side" duet on the soundtrack of part 2. 
> 
> Come find me and yell about this beautiful show and these amazing characters with me on tumblr @stuckwithope.
> 
> I tried not to mess with AAVE too much while writing their dialogue, but to also remain true to the characters. As a white person, I'm sure I've messed it up. If you see anything that's weird about the characterization or about the vocabulary I used, I'd be glad for some criticism.


End file.
